An Invernessian in America: Tale of a tall plant that has captured the imagination
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Ok, so there’s a real "Florida" flavour to my column this week. And a bit of a Mexican taste thrown in for good measure too…
It’s about the agave plant – which I’m sure you’ve heard of?
The blue agave is the plant that produces the base ingredient for tequila, and is an important economic product of Mexico (I’m talking about the agave, but I’m sure tequila itself bears the same stature of value!).
But would you ever lump tequila and asparagus together?
Bear with me as my newly-tuned green fingers tell this tale…
Imagine my delight when I moved into my current home and found this luscious agave growing in the garden!
And it really is stunning – its large, spiky leaves are a beautiful shade of green, not blue, so we won’t be juicing the leaves to make margaritas but, still, it is a great plant to have out the front of the house.
And one I don’t even have to tend to – lucky, as plants and I have never had what you could call a thriving relationship.
We recently re-sodded the grass and, with the Florida temperatures being what they are, have been watering it religiously twice daily.
I’m not sure if this is a contributing factor, but out of nowhere this impressive spear seemed to sprout from the middle of the plant.
On the Friday one week there was nothing, but by Monday we had what looked like asparagus on steroids!
Which actually makes sense as the agave is a species of 200 or so plants in the Asparagaceae family.
Now, this thing has become a neighbourhood spectacle. And you can see why. It’s absolutely ginormous.
And it gets bigger every single day.
My Monday morning ritual is now to stand in the garden and take pictures of it.
I’d make sure my back was up against the fence so I could compare, but after a few weeks it wouldn’t fit in frame!
I know, I know – she’s writing about a plant.
But I’m not the only one who is excited. I started posting it on my Instagram story and have never had so many people commenting on something!
I’ve had articles sent to me, theories, suggestions on what exactly the hell to do with it…
Part of me is actually waiting for the local news crew to turn up at our door for the story.
However, in my quest for answers, I’ve learned it’s not all good news.
There is also what you might call "The Asparagus Death Wish!"
So, every 15-20 years, a telephone pole-sized asparagus spear will suddenly sprout from the centre of the plant, and continue to grow, just as the agave is about to die.
Yep, its final blaze of glory is to grow this ridiculously large spear which will eventually bloom a nursery of pretty white flowers, and then the whole plant dies.
Lovely.
Alas, the story grows, like the spear.
We’re selling the house and it goes on the market this week!
Let’s hope our ever-growing weird plant draws the crowds in and generates interest.
But it’s a little bittersweet as I would hate to move out of here before it reaches its climatic bloom!
Until then I will be revelling in its bizarre final state – and let it be a stark reminder to us all to always go out with a bang!
Previous column: My second jag is a birthday gift worth waiting for
